Collecting mossie spit for health in our region

Every two weeks North West Hospital and Health Service (NWHHS) nurses in Normanton and Karumba collect little cards of mossie spit and send them off to a laboratory in Brisbane, to detect what kind of viruses our local mosquitoes are carrying.

They’re playing their part in the Queensland Arbovirus Sentinel Surveillance System, which targets several mosquito-borne viruses, according to Public Health Nurse, Keith Rickart, who is working on Queensland Health’s Mosquito-borne Disease Prevention and Control Program for Queensland Health.